Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Into the woods with my camera

I am fortunate to live in an area that is not only surrounded by woods but also has several state forests with marked trails to walk. I love to take my camera along when I go walking through the woods and so I thought instead of doing a post about my sketches for this months theme I'd share some photos of a recent walk for your inspiration. Feel free to use these photos however you like but if you re-post any of them please link back to the Sketchbook Challenge blog as the source. (click any of the photos below for a larger view)

The New England landscape is very lush in the summer months and there's no shortage of beautiful trees in a astounding palette of greens to draw inspiration from:

A view from my deck of the woods that surrounds my home

There are so many things to draw inspiration from on a walk through the woods. The trees and plants of course but there's also the sounds.

The crunch of the leaves and dirt beneath your feet and the sounds of the birds in the trees:

male Grosbeak

female ruby throated hummingbird

Nuthatch

and one of my favorite sounds is the coo of the mourning dove

There's a lot of inspiration to be found on the ground in the woods as well:

the surface of a felled tree

I love ferns both such great color and texture (and they are a lot of fun to leaf print with - just use a foam brush to lightly coat them with paint and then press into either fabric or paper to create a print)

moss on a stone wall

And of course when fall arrives in New England all that greenery bursts into a palette of yellow, reds and oranges:

my backyard in the fall

Which gives way to winter and the woods become filled with shades of brown:

No matter what time of the year you walk through the woods there's always something to be inspired by!